Pleiades 6, Yuki-Chan and DanMachi 7, Nisekoi2 6, Teekyuu 42

Houkago no Pleiades 6 felt at times like a season finale. For a while I thought maybe this was actually a six-episode mini-series, but no, there’s still more engine fragments to collect, but elsewhere much has changed. Basically, Horned Cape or whatever he’s called (we learn this week it’s not Minato) sends off one of his fragments for the girls to collect, thus finding out where they operate so he can steal the ones they have. Meanwhile, the spaceship is reforming, or something. Basically it’s a big gold arc in the sky, while the part of the engine the boss has rebuilt looks like a cube made of glowing tinker toys. And before you know it …

I don’t think I can explain this.

It’s hard to explain because I don’t understand it. The school is sealed off by HC with Suburu inside, and then it’s floating in space and HC is trying to bust in, and the spaceship is reforming … Well, the big surprise this week is that, as I said, Minato is NOT Horned Cape. HC stumbles into the observatory and he’s just as surprised as Suburu was. And later, after this week’s cosmic light show, Minato and HC have a little talk about it being time to leave, we don’t see them on the screen together, so they probably are fragments of the ship, or maybe just split in two, or something. Getting them together will probably be a focus for the rest of the series, as well as obtaining those remaining engine parts. Oh, and the observatory is no longer a greenhouse, well it is, but it’s night there now and the trees are dead. Before, everything bloomed, even though Minato said they couldn’t, which harkens back to the alien’s speech about stopping time. My head hurts.
Meanwhile, in The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan … very little happens at all. The gang go on a trip to an inn, well, they’re not there yet. They’re too busy hanging sightseeing in Nagano for the time being. And that’s pretty much the episode. They catch the train. They go here, they go there, they buy soba, buns, ice cream, and shaved ice, they buy wooden swords with massage rollers attached (well, Mikaru does). Stuff about power spots in shrines. Oh, there’s the business of trying to get Yuki and Kyon together, but the show doesn’t try too hard to play that up, and only Asakura is really concerned about it. The episode is, overall, pleasant apart from the slow pacing. Once again the show takes too much time with reaction bits, or simply ending a scene. That meeting scene at the train station was far longer than it needed to be, though I admit I enjoyed the idea that Kyon’s imouto was in that bag.DanMachi 7 is little more than filler and some prep work for the next arc, which apparently has to with an adventurer who goes and finds a monster–and trains it to be even nastier. We cut to several of these scenes, which are all pretty much the same, until the final bit when the monster starts going after other, more hapless adventurers. In the meantime, Liliruca is introduced to the Hestia Familia, which is to say, Hestia, who is necessarily dubious about this new threat. Meanwhile, Bell gets repeatedly beaten, er, trained in fighting, by Aiz. I wonder if this is actually part of his fantasy, to have the girl of his dreams kick his ass every night. Well, at least he’s getting over his fear of her.

Valentines Day

Nisekoi 2 6 is the inevitable Valentines Day episode (Didn’t they do one already? I can’t remember), and while it had some good moments I kept thinking the gods of comedy must have been taking a week off. There was so much potential for misunderstandings and running around, especially when Shu lied to Tsugumi about what the chocolates implied, but they didn’t follow through and make things as crazy as they could have. Well, it had some sweet moments. Raku actually gets chocolates from all the girls in the end. Chitoge and Onodera work together to make theirs (wait, didn’t Chitoge already make some?) and pledge to support each other in their quest for the people they like, not knowing it’s the same person. Marika’s gift was good for a laugh, and Tsumugi got to whip out her guns. I’ve seen worse Valentines Day episodes.Teekyuu! 42 continues the exciting beach adventure, where the girls get lost at sea and the gags come at an average of 3.21SPG. And that’s counting a slow couple of seconds where they’re attacked by natives. Very impressive, girls!